Trade Unions and Technological Change in the U.K. Mechanical Engineering Industry1
| Author | M. M. Woods,V. G. Lintner,M. J. Pokorny,M.R. Blinkhorn |
| Published date | 01 March 1987 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.1987.tb00699.x |
| Date | 01 March 1987 |
Trade Unions and Technological
Change in the U.K. Mechanical
E
ng
i
nee ri n g
I
n d
u
st
ry
’
V.
G.
Lintner,
M.
J.
Pokorny,
M.
M.
Woods
and
M.
R.
Blinkhorn*
INTRODUCTION
In recent years there has been considerable debate concerning the influence
that trade unions may have on the rate
of
technological change. In the
U.K.
this debate has been fuelled by the fear that unionised work forces might
effectively resist the introduction
of
what can be loosely termed new
technology in production processes. These fears have largely arisen from
alarmist forecasts
of,
the employment consequences of technological change
which have emanated from some quarters,2 and from the much publicised
case
of
the printing unions in
Fleet
Street. The debate has, however, been
conducted in somewhat of an empirical vacuum, with precious little rigorous
analysis of these issues having been carried out.3
This paper seeks
to
contribute to the above debate by presenting evidence
relating
to
the influence of trade unions on the adoption of Computer Aided
Design and Manufacturing equipment (CADCAM) in the
U.K.
mechanical
engineering industry. The data upon which this study is based was collected
by means
of
a sample survey carried out in the summer of
1983
and early
1984,
and is part of a wider study investigating the economic impact of
CADCAM in mechanical engineering. The survey involved detailed
personal interviews with
101
establishments throughout England, in addi-
tion to a shorter postal questionnaire being sent to a further 200 establish-
ments throughout Britain. A total
of
54
usable responses were produced by
the postal survey, thus resulting in a total sample size of 155 establishments.
The establishments which were personally interviewed were not, however,
selected randomly. In order to ensure that sufficient observations were
obtained
on
users
of
CADCAM (particularly users
of
Computer Aided
Design systems), and thus to enable detailed insights to be obtained into the
adoption process, it was considered necessary to bias the personal interviews
towards establishments which
a
priori
appeared to be likely users of
*V.
G.
Lintner and M. M. Woods are both Senior Lecturers in Economics,
M.
J.
Pokorny is a
Principal Lecturer in Quantitive Methods and M. R. Blinkhorn is a Research Assistant, all in
The Business School, The Polytechnic
of
North London.
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